FanHouse BoScaife

Rookie receivers traditionally have one of the toughest transitions to life in the NFL, topped only it seems by quarterbacks. With that in mind, it seems pretty clear that Kenny Britt, the Titans' first round pick, will not start the season as a key part of the team's offense.

That will be Justin Gage and Nate Washington's job, and even they will have to fight for attention with tight ends Alge Crumpler and Bo Scaife snagging a lot of the move the chains stuff.

We've already given a single post to each of the seemingly most relevant fantasy football impact players from the NFL Draft -- we say seemingly because bust-hood is always a possibility in this business -- but those are by no means the only players who might matter in this coming season. With that in mind, here are the rest of the guys who's impact will be felt:

LeSean McCoy, RB, Eagles (Round 2): If you end up with Brian Westbrook, you absolutely must have McCoy. The shifty stud from Pittsburgh is exactly the type of back Westbrook is, which means he can thrive in this offense.

Because the NFL season never ends, we present our 2009 Offseason Roadmaps for front offices to navigate through the summer.

The Titans' 2008 season ranks as one of the greatest in team history. After a couple of years of either just making or just missing the playoffs, the Titans took a big step forward, finishing the season with the NFL's best record (13-3). Rookie running back Chris Johnson emerged as a big-play threat and Kerry Collins not only took over the starting quarterback job from Vince Young but proved that he has some life left in his arm.

With Albert Haynesworth, Kerry Collins, Rod Bironas and Bo Scaife all less than two weeks away from free agency, it appears that the Titans are not close to re-upping any of them.

But Mike Reinfeldt told the Tennessean that the Titans are considering franchising either Scaife or Bironas. The franchise tag for either of them would not be that expensive--only $4.46 million for Scaife or $2.48 million for Bironas. In comparison, it would cost $14.65 million to franchise Collins.

Pro Football Talk has gotten its hands on some preliminary cap room numbers. What's clear is that, like last year, there is more money available to be spent then there are players to spend it on.

Even before teams start getting rid of dead weight and overpaid veterans, only four teams are over the cap--the Jets, Colts, Saints and Redskins (Washington wouldn't know how to start an offseason if it wasn't over the cap). Now these numbers may change slightly once unlikely to be earned incentives that were reached are added and likely to be earned incentives that weren't are credited, but the numbers will not change much.

The full numbers and cap room are after the jump.

For a team that usually does a very good job of planning ahead, the Titans sure have a lot of different fires to put out as free agency nears.

There's the matter of re-signing game changing defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth, tight end Bo Scaife--the team's leading receiver--is also heading to free agency as is quarterback Kerry Collins, who mentioned at the Pro Bowl that he's willing to turn the screws on the Titans to get a better deal.

Collins has made it clear several times that he wants to be back in Nashville next year, but he's also saying agent-approved things that send signals that the Titans are going to have to pay a market rate.

As the Patriots continue to rebuild their front office and coaching staff following another offseason exodus, the team has announced the hiring of former Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans general manager Floyd Reese as a senior football advisor. According to the team's official press release, he will work alongside director of player personnel Nick Caserio and head coach Bill Belichick in "various football-related assignments, including contracts."

Here's what Patriots owner Robert Kraft had to say on the hiring:

"We consider ourselves fortunate to have the opportunity to add someone with Floyd Reese's NFL experience and expertise to our staff," said Patriots Chairman and CEO Robert Kraft. "Floyd will be a tremendous asset serving Coach Belichick in an advisory role."

The playoffs are either upon us or one week away in the majority of fantasy football leagues. With this in mind, Fantasy FanHouse is examining what you can expect from the fantasy relevant players on each team.

Tennessee Titans

The opposing defenses: vs. CLE (18th against pass, 26th against run), @ HOU (15th against pass, 23rd against run), PITT (1st against pass, 1st against run)
The skinny: The DST gets to feast on Ken Dorsey in Week 14, which is a great thing. Also, worth the mention is that the next two weeks should bode very well for the two headed attack of Crockett and Tubby Chris Johnson and LenDale White. The Browns can't stop anyone on the ground and although their getting better, the Texans haven't quite proved to be a daunting task to run on. However, come Championship week - you may want to proceed with caution as the league's #1 defense will surely be focused on stopping the Titans vaunted running game and forcing Kerry Collins to beat them. As they say it's smooth sailing before rough waters, venture with caution.
The must-starts: Chris Johnson
The likely start: LenDale White, Rob Bironas
The spot-start: Bo Scaife
The no-starts: Justin Gage, Kerry Collins, Brandon Jones, Justin Mccareins, Alge Crumpler
The D/ST: Hmm, they've been a unbreakable at times this season, but have also shown recent vulnerability. However, judging from the schedule...it's hard to break it off with them now. Just don't expect them to be a machine.

FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled weekly by the staff in order to provide answers to possible lineup questions. These are assuming most leagues use Fleaflicker's standard scoring structure. If you need clarification, you need more players ranked, or have funky league rules, feel free to shoot us an email question.

The roller-coaster ride continues if you don't own a top-tier TE. However, even if you do - those once reliable options have been hit or miss at best. Tony Gonzalez continues to flourish in the role as the top dog, but Antonio Gates should be primed for a decent game this week. Meanwhile, fantasy owners can finally breathe a sigh of relief as Jason Witten has a pretty good matchup and -- although he might not be 100 percent -- at least Tony Romo is back.

Yet, once you get past those favorite TE options... it's really a crapshoot. Fantasy pundits fell in love, for some reason, with big John Carlson. He's returned a big helping of nothing in return during recent weeks. Plenty of fantasy owners were banking on Kevin Boss last weekend and he also dished out a helping of bust. Who's the boss now? Ah, yes ... bad, bad joke.

Well, the flavor of the week now seems to be Dustin Keller coming off a breakout stretch of games. Will he also break our hearts? I sure hope not, because I've bumped him up the TE rankings and I'm banking on big things for my own team. So don't blame me if he craps out. Stay tuned.

Quick note: I just couldn't bump Dallas Clark over the "Big Three." Worth mentioning, though, is that San Diego is a funnel for tight ends to have successful days. Just mentioning. On with the ranks...

1. Antonio Gates, IND
2. Tony Gonzalez, BUF
3. Jason Witten, SF
4. Dallas Clark, @ SD
5. Chris Cooley, @SEA

FanHouse fantasy positional rankings are compiled weekly by the staff in order to provide answers to possible lineup questions. These are assuming most leagues use Fleaflicker's standard scoring structure. If you need clarification, you need more players ranked, or have funky league rules, feel free to shoot us an email question.

Just two weeks ago, this position was absolutely depleted; the shallowest of fantasy positions. All of a sudden, Week 10 brought us some incredible success for such a specialized position ... and now looking at this week's matchups, it's really tough to go wrong here.

The top seven are obviously solid plays, especially Tony Gonzalez, who would be a weekly must-start at this point if he played WR.

Look past that group, though. Would you be having any reservations playing Donald Lee against the Bears? Todd Heap, Vernon Davis, and Zach Miller would be decent options, but they are ranked in the 17-20 range.

Dustin Keller and Kevin Boss are beginning to break out in New York.

Visanthe Shiancoe, Greg Olsen, and Bo Scaife have become extremely trusted options for their quarterbacks.

Finally, John Carlson (pictured), the rookie from Notre Dame, will enjoy having Matt Hasselbeck under center again, and I look for him to receive the most targets and catches in Seattle this weekend.

1. Tony Gonzalez, vs. NO
2. Dallas Clark, vs. HOU
3. Kellen Winslow, at BUF
4. Antonio Gates, at PIT
5. Jason Witten, at WAS